It was almost sundown, and the sky was filled with an orange glow by the
time Rhys reached the lake Amar had visited two days before. As he crept
along the edge of the forest near the lake, he kept his eyes squarely
focused on the figure he saw standing just off the shore; it had to be the
Layan that Ilan's baker had seen. The red color of her hair was almost a
perfect match for that of her bodysuit and boots, but most noticeable to
Rhys, as to Amar, was the fact that the woman simply did not move.

In fact, she was so motionless that Rhys thought it would probably be
possible to walk right up to her, draw his blade, and put it to her throat
without even causing her to blink. The prince opted for caution, however,
and he crept through the forest, watching her from behind.

After several minutes of careful reconnaissance, Rhys quietly pulled his
short sword from its scabbard and slowly began tiptoeing towards the
Layan. The sound of his excited heartbeat sounded in his ears loudly,

I'll have Maia soon. You're going to tell me exactly where she
is.

and he feared that its thunder would alert the creature to his presence.
However, even this was not enough to stir her. Finally, he was just a few
steps behind her. Then three... two...

Rhys leaped forward and threw his left arm around the Layan, grabbing her
in a tight hold. With his other hand, he brought his short sword around
to her front, and placed the blade an inch away from the tender flesh of
her throat. Even still, she did not seem to budge.

"All right, you vile Layan, the game's up," he hissed, his mouth right up
to her ear. "Return Maia to me, now!"

Rhys grinned in satisfaction. Within hours, he would be back in Landen,
and Maia would be his bride. This had been all too easy.

Before Rhys even prepared himself to listen for an answer -- in fact, a
mere nanosecond after he had uttered the last syllable of his sentence --
the Layan suddenly moved. The move was so unexpected, not to mention so
fast, that not only did Rhys not have time to respond, he didn't
even have time to formulate a response. Before he knew it, the
red-headed Layan reached out (faster than any human could) with her right
hand and grabbed a hold of the fist Rhys had wrapped tightly around the
hilt of his short sword. Pain shot up and down Rhys's forearm, but the
Layan did not even give him time to yell before she pulled his arm, and
the short sword it held, away from her, causing the blade to twirl through
the air and land near the shore of the lake.

Rhys turned his head to look for his sword, and at the same time, the
Layan grabbed him by the back of his neck and pulled him up off the
ground, tossing him over her head and flipping him down onto the grass at
her feet. Stunned, with a bit of wind knocked out of him, the Prince of
Landen looked up at the woman (who, obviously, no longer resembled a
statue in the slightest bit) and saw she held her right hand pointed at
his neck. What's she going to do to me? Rhys wondered in genuine
fear. Shoot fire from her hands?

It turned out, his fears weren't all that far from the truth. Upon closer
inspection of the woman's forearm, Rhys gasped: three tiny blades were
poking out of a metal object wrapped around her forearm. The shocking
thing about this, however, was the fact that the metal of the wristband
looked to be very thin -- too thin for the blades to be housed inside.
That means... Rhys realized. That means... they must protrude
directly from her skin! He almost gasped again.

"Tell me who you are," the woman demanded. Rhys met her eyes and saw she
was not kidding around in any way. Then, a slight movement in the corner
of his eye drew his attention back to the blades which protruded from her
forearm.

The "tiny blades" were growing longer.

Soon, cutting devices which couldn't be called anything except claws had
extended themselves from her forearm, and the sharp surfaces on the ends
were but a fraction of an inch away from Rhys's throat. "Now," the woman
added with a grin, taking great satisfaction in using Rhys's own demand
against him.

"I...," Rhys stuttered, "I'm Prince Rhys of Landen. I'm searc--"

Suddenly, the woman retracted her claws back into her arms and picked the
prince up off the ground with a questioning look on her face. "Landen!"
she cried. "Why didn't you say so before?"

Rhys, thoroughly confused, brushed the dirt from his clothes and watched
as the Layan woman stepped across the grass to where his sword had rested.
"I..." he spat out again, not knowing what to say. Finally, he adjusted
his posture, took a breath, and took on a defiant tone. "Yes," he
announced, "I am Prince Rhys of Landen, and you are a Layan witch. I want
to know what you did with my bride-to-be, Maia, and I want to know this
instant!"

He wasn't sure what kind of a reaction to expect from her, but the one he
got was not on his short list. The woman picked his sword up off the
ground, started walking back towards him... and laughed out loud.
"No, you're mistaken. I'm not one of Laya's people,
Prince," she said as she returned his sword.

"You... you're not?" Rhys asked, filled with suspicion.

"No, not at all." Another chuckle.

"Well then... Amar, a baker from Ilan, he saw you here and... you never
blinked! All Orakians blink, and you do not, so therefore, you must be a
Layan!"

"I can blink," the woman confessed, and to prove it, she leaned her face
in close to Rhys's and fluttered her eyelashes. "But you are right. I'm
not an Orakian. I am a combat cyborg, designation Mieu type."

"Please understand, I am a superstitious old man, good Prince Rhys. I
don't want to sail without a good luck charm, and cyborgs are good luck
charms, if you ask me."

"A cyborg?" Rhys repeated.

"That's right," Mieu nodded. "To be technical, I'm an android, but back
1,000 years ago, when our army fought Laya's, we used the term 'cyborg' to
fool them into thinking we were made, in part, with human flesh, so that,
because of Laya's Law, they would not attempt to kill us."

Rhys nodded his head, taking in the information. Not only was she a
cyborg -- she was a cyborg who fought with Orakio himself!

"And if you are who you say you are, Prince, then you should know that
I have been waiting for 1,000 years for you."

"Excuse me?" Rhys blinked. The twists and turns were just coming too
fast. Not only was Mieu not a Layan, she was a cyborg: just what he
needed to get old man Blake from Yaata to take him to the island. More
than that, however... she fought with the great Orakio 1,000 years
before... and she's been waiting for him ever since? "You... you
have?"

"I didn't know your name would be Rhys, and, of course, I didn't even know
what you'd look like," Mieu explained. "But only a descendant of
Orakio can command me, and if you are indeed Prince of Landen, then
you fit the description perfectly."

Rhys smiled. Life had taken a very, very nice turn. Now, he not only had
his ticket out to the island, but he had help in his quest to find Maia;
help in the form of his own personal combat cyborg (er, android),
designation Mieu type.

Lyle blinked at her, feigning complete confusion, when in fact, the
conversation was (so far) going exactly as he'd hoped it would. "What
happ..." He drifted off as he crossed the floor to meet Meri at the inn's
counter. "Oh my!" he gasped upon reaching it. "Oh, don't tell me I
forgot to leave a note!"

"A... a note?"

Lyle buried his face in his hands, as much to act the role as it was to
prevent himself from laughing out loud. "Everyone is always saying,
'Lyle, you're just so absent-minded. You'd forget your legs if they
weren't attached to you.'" After raising his
head (his expression now completely innocent) to again meet Meri's eyes,
he smiled. "Forgive me, Meri. I awoke before sunrise and left, so that I
could get that early start to the wedding, as you suggested. I suppose I
forgot to leave you a note."

"But what about the key?"

"The key?" Lyle blinked back.

"Yes, your room key." Meri pointed towards the stairs leading up to the
guest rooms. "Your room was locked, but your key was inside, on the
table."

In response, Lyle only shrugged. "What can I say? It's my
absent-mindedness again. I guess I locked the door behind me and left the
key inside."

"Oh." Meri seemed to toss the explanations over in her mind. What
have I been so worried about? she finally asked herself. In response,
all she could do was laugh. "I'm sorry, Lyle. For the past few days I've
been entertaining the silly notion that you climbed out the window in the
middle of the night."

Lyle joined her laughter, all the time thinking, Half right there,
Meri! I didn't climb out; I turned into a dragon and flew
out!

"Well, with that out of the way," Meri said, her cheeks starting to
blush, "what brings you back to my establishment, Lyle?"

"That wonderful tea you served me the night I stayed," Lyle answered. "I
was just passing by and decided I could use some of it... as well as some
conversation with you, of course."

Thattaboy, Lyle, the dragon knight of Shusoran told himself.
Make her think you fancy her and in a moment, she'll be singing like a
morning bird.

"I just put a pot on," Meri smiled before retreating to the room behind
her counter. "One cup of tea, coming right up."

"Thank you."

"Say," she called to him from the back room. "Did you make it to the
wedding?"

"I did," Lyle answered truthfully, and he had to turn his back and feign
casually looking around the room to prevent Meri from seeing his grin as
she re-entered the room. "Terrible, just terrible. That poor Maia."

Lyle sipped the tea he was handed as Meri nodded in agreement. "We were
all shocked to hear about it. Prince Rhys immediately wanted to take
Landen's army in search of Laya's clan, but his father wouldn't stand for
it. He locked the prince in Landen's dungeon."

"Yes. The good news is, our very own Princess Lena freed him from the
dungeon, and he has already set off in search of his bride."

Lyle nearly choked on his tea. "Now that's what I call interesting."
Here's your opening, Lyle. Take it. "So, what did he do first?
Trash Aquatica's weather systems? Or was that taken care of by others,
back in Landen?"

Meri blinked at Lyle as if he were speaking another language. "Excuse
me?"

"Did Prince Rhys destroy the Layans' weather systems," Lyle said slowly,
placing his teacup down on the counter, "or was that taken care of by
accomplices back in Landen?"

The innkeeper stared at him for a long moment. During the uncomfortable
silence, for no particular reason, Lyle suddenly noticed that Meri's eyes
were the same green as his hair. Then, as Meri still stared at him
blankly, his mind started to fill with panic. She suspects! he
told himself. She knows I'm a Layan!

Finally, the tension was broken... as Meri started to laugh. "Oh, you're
so silly, Lyle!" she chuckled. "I'm sure Prince Rhys would love to flood
the Layans' cities, but only Orakio controls the weather!"

Within an instant, Lyle was joining Meri in laughter, but they were not,
by any means, laughing at the same joke. They don't even know!
Lyle realized. Oh, how he couldn't wait to return to Cille and share this
one with his uncle. The ignoramuses don't even know the truth of this
world! They think Orakio rules over weather!

Retrieving his teacup from the counter, Lyle took another sip. His
mission was accomplished; he had determined that the Orakians had
not trashed Aquatica's weather control systems. Therefore, all
that was left to do was to let Meri tickle his funny bone with a few more
stories. "So, what did Rhys do first?" he asked, still chuckling
occasionally.

"We hear he went east, towards the villages of Yaata and Ilan," Meri
answered. "Though I wish he would come this way. Lyle, on the morning of
Maia's abduction, I saw the beast that took her!"

Of course you did, Meri. He slept in your inn the night before.
"Oh my!"

Meri nodded and continued. "The beast came from the west, however.
Lyle, listen to me -- you were at the wedding, so you know what Prince
Rhys looks like. And I remember you saying that you're a traveler, so...
If you see Prince Rhys, tell him to come here, to Satera. If the beast
came from the west, it probably took Maia back that way, as well."

"I'd be happy to pass along the message, Meri." Especially since Maia
is east, you twit. "Rhys won't get very far heading east,
anyway. That far cave is blocked, and no one can enter."

"Well," Meri shrugged, "that's another reason for him to head to Satera.
Our castle holds the Sapphire, a brilliant gem which, legend has it, is
they key to opening that eastern cave. Maybe the creature took Maia
inside it, thinking that he could lock her away in there forever."

The laughter in Lyle's head stopped. He had brought Maia back to Cille
immediately because there was no way for the Orakians to reach Aquatica --
(Unless they could somehow fool the sensors in Laya's Palace into
thinking their genetic codes were Layan, of course) -- but now, that
was changing. If Rhys got the Sapphire, he would indeed be able to reach
Aquatica.

And that was totally and completely unacceptable.

Slowly, Lyle nodded, then gulped the rest of his tea. It burned in his
throat as it went down, but the pain, in a way, felt good -- it felt like
a reminder to Lyle. Wake up, he told himself. Rhys isn't out
of the game yet. But he will be, if you can keep yourself two steps ahead
of him at all times.

"I'm afraid I must be leaving, Meri. How much for the tea?"

Meri shook her head, declining payment. "It's on the house, in gratitude
for solving the mystery of what happened to you."

Lyle put on all his charm and smiled. He gave Meri, the keeper of
Satera's inn, a slight bow before walking to the door of her inn, throwing
it open, and exiting into the town. All he had to do now was find a place
to hide; a place to lay low and wait for sundown. Once it was dark, he
was going to break into Satera's castle.